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Reviews
Rovdyr (2008)
Disappointing & hard to follow.
First thing to mention was that when I began watching this movie, I had no idea it was a foreign film. It wasn't until watching the opening credits and realising that the entire cast was Norwegian that suspicions began to arise. I in fact really like subtitled/foreign horror movies. It means at no point can you take your eyes off the screen leaving you open to every fright and horrific image that the movie has to offer. Also, you can't tell if the acting is worse than Brendan Frasers (in anything but The Mummy Returns and that one episode of Scrubs).
As a survival horror movie, it could be thought of as a bit of a tribute to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the ultimate survival horror movie) – it was even set in 1974 (coincidence, I think not). 4 unwitting "friends" pick up a hitch-hiker (Did I hear Texas Chainsaw Massacre?) at a petrol station as they drive through an ever thickening forest. This leads them into a battle to survive the attacks of a gang of hill-billy hunters (or whatever the Norwegian equivalent of a hill billy is).
I had two real issues with this movie. Firstly, the ending (surprise surprise). Horror movie endings always run the risk of being a disappointment because either another movie has done it, it'll be too subtle that we won't understand it, it can't be a truly happy ending because, y'know, it's a horror movie so they force a "horror ending" or it'll be so cliché that even a bomb, seventeen knife wounds to the chest and a shotgun blast to the face won't kill it. This ending unfortunately falls into the "too subtle to explain what's happened". Did she get away? Was the woman who picked her up in cahoots with the other bad guys? It left a lot of unanswered questions and not in an interesting way.
Which leads neatly into my second issue: the bad guys motivation. Some horror movies are so scary because the anti-hero has no real reason to attack the person they're attacking (e.g. The Strangers) but even then there seems to be some sort of motivation or explanation for why they are doing it. But in Manhunt that doesn't seem to be the case. Are they hunting these people? Why does one guy find them and leave them there to get away? Is it a game? Are they just sadistic redneck Vikings?
On top of this, it's not entirely clear why the four of them were travelling together. 2 of them hate Lassa Valdals "Roger" who, to be fair, was a douche bag of Kanye-West-esque proportions and he clearly hates all of them. Why would they go travelling together in a cramped mini-van (another throwback to Texas Chainsaw Massacre)?
However, it wasn't all bad. It was made in 2008 but set in 1974. Hopefully intentionally, the quality of the film was as if it was made in the seventies except with make-up, blood and guts good enough to make you believe that even the goriest of wounds were real. The camera work saved a lot of this movie including some clever lingering shots of the landscape cementing just how isolated these individuals are.
Ils (2006)
Had us on the edge of our seats...
A second foreign film review for Gruffhouse. We have to say
We're really looking forward to watching another one. This film, known is 'Ils' in it's original state, is a French /Romanian film directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud (both better known for directing 'The Eye'). Straight off, we can easily say that we loved it. Jonathan Ross called it "77 minutes of gloriously maintained tension". He's not wrong.
Let us describe the opening scene for you. The film starts off with a mother and daughter arguing whilst on a car journey to
who knows where. They lose control of the car trying to avoid something in the road and plough straight into a lamp post. After many failed attempts to start the car, the mother gets out of the car and looks at the engine. Everyone knows what's coming. It's a horror film. It's obvious. BUT the eerie noises, the lingering shots of the road that slot in between short, choppy camera shots almost makes it seem like something paranormal is about to happen. The daughter calls out to her mother. There's no shadows. No evidence of anything moving around the car. The hood of the car slams shut and the mother's nowhere to be seen. She gets out of the car to look for her mother but the creepy sounds of the forest send her running back to the vehicle. She is then taunted and terrified by the silence and the mud that is slowly and methodically being flung towards the car. The silence strikes again and she is strangled from behind by some unknown character in the back passenger seat. We don't see these characters referenced again throughout the whole film. They're purely there to start the ball rolling.
There are two other characters in the movie: Clementine and Lucas. : a young couple who have recently moved to the area. We see Clementine drive past the crashed car from the previous night as she makes her way home – a very clever, subtle way to set the time frame for the movie.
The directors do something very clever over the next few scenes; they make you really like these characters. You see them bond in their new home, romantic evenings. You learn to understand their relationship.
The horror for this young couple starts one night when their car gets taken. This is then immediately followed by a string of events. The power goes. The phone lines are down. The terror begins. The couple are now being hunted in their own home.
It is clear to see the scenes are heavily influenced by the classics. There are lingering shots down the long hallways of the house - very reminiscent of shots from 'The Shining'. There are scenes where Clementine is running through the attic of the house through large pieces of insulation and plastic – mirroring the famous scene from 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' when they're running through the meat cooler.
The location scouts did a fantastic job on finding the house. The setting is dynamic – plain walls, lots of doors, hiding places. It's perfect for this sort of movie.
When Lucas gets hurt it becomes Clementine's mission to find a way out. Cue the epic-style hide and seek scenario in the attic that I referenced earlier. Then the chase continues outside the house and into the woods that surround them. Now it's just a desperate attempt for her and injured Lucas to escape and find help. What comes next is incredibly creepy.
We were on the edge of our seats throughout the whole film. It was frightfully tense and well worth a watch. Unlike most horrors, the ending is pure brilliance. Reading the blurb I was expecting a disappointing 'Panic Room' type storyline. It was the opposite. A fantastic twist and a great plot line throughout.
Oh, and I forgot to say
it's based on true events. *shudder*
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